Born on October 7, 1791, in Albemarle County, Virginia, Monroe attended Transylvania University and read law in 1821.
He entered private practice in Frankfort, Kentucky starting in 1821.
[1] Monroe was nominated by President Andrew Jackson on February 20, 1834, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky vacated by Judge John Boyle.
[1] Concurrent with his federal judicial service, Monroe was a law teacher in Montrose,[2] Kentucky from 1843 to 1848, Chairman of the Law Department at Transylvania University starting in 1848, and a professor of law at Tulane University from 1848 to circa 1851.
[1] Following his resignation from the federal bench, Monroe was a delegate from Kentucky to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1862.